Brendan Ryan (Labour)

The Tánaiste went missing for two days on this issue. If €100 million extra were being spent on residential care for the elderly, would one expect the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Power, to be wheeled out on "Morning Ireland" on Tuesday morning to explain it? We would have the Tánaiste demanding half an hour to herself to announce the good news. When there was a difficult issue, the poor Minister of State, Deputy Seán Power, whom I like and respect, was wheeled out while the Tánaiste, who told us she is brave, went missing. That is what I call ducking responsibility. In recent months the Tánaiste told us how brave she is. This was her responsibility, as she wants the glory for it. Why is our inspection system timid, slow, late and impotent? I do not know but there are only two conclusions I can make. One points to a level of administrative incompetence that defies description and the other to a reluctance to confront the issue because of the possible implications for the public purse. If it is believed that it will cost too much to rectify the problem, thus implying we will leave old people at risk of being left to sleep all night in their own urine, then our priorities, as articulated by Government, are entirely wrong.

We were able to set up quickly a private system to inspect our guesthouses. The former Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, did so in six months and removed responsibility in this regard from Bord Fáilte. There were no complex issues or problems to be addressed. Guesthouses now have to meet the standards that have been set. The new system was established in no time at all. We have a food safety authority whose representatives can walk into any restaurant at any time without notice and exercise the power to close it down if it is not cleaned up after having been deemed filthy. The authority does not have to go to court to achieve this.

I am told that reasonable levels of nursing, physical and medical care are available in a limited number of premises, which number fewer than the number of guesthouses. I am told the problem is complex. It is complex because the Government does not want to address it, for whatever reason, presumably because it is afraid it will be left with another bill. The only logical assumption I can make is that the limited money the Government believes is at its disposal would be wasted on the elderly because there would be no votes in addressing the issue. Another conclusion is that the Government is in cahoots with the owners of the nursing homes and does not want to embarrass them. I do not want to go down that road.

The second issue to be addressed in determining why circumstances are as they are is secrecy. Until 1998, health boards were allegedly inspecting nursing homes and keeping the reports secret. It was a matter of national policy that no health board would disclose the report of any inspector of any nursing home. After the enactment of the Freedom of Information Act, reports were disclosed but the Government decided to make it difficult to obtain them. There has been a dramatic drop since the Information Commissioner imposed draconian charges on those obtaining information. The health authority can say it will not publish the inspectors' reports and a considerable sum must be paid to appeal every decision.

Information, limited and bad as it was, was available and the Government decided to make it harder to obtain it. That is not its fault either. It is not its fault that it had five opportunities and ignored them. It is not its fault that it ignored the Human Rights Commission and that it wrote a script for a Minister of State that does not even address the problem. It is not its fault that people do not know what is going on.

This is not a debate about a particular nursing home but about a system under which we do not really want to enforce the law. We do not want laws that are powerful or people to take them seriously. I am becoming entirely sick of a succession of examples that are arising in this regard. On issues affecting immigrant workers, we do not do anything unless there is a complaint by people who cannot speak English. On planning enforcement, we all know how few planning enforcement orders are issued around the country. For a long time the Health and Safety Authority did not do anything until somebody was killed because it did not believe in being too rigorous. We have a list of such examples. The fundamental problem, of which the nursing home abuse is a particularly revolting symptom, is systematic indifference to making the laws of the land apply to those who are rich and powerful. This is true of most nursing home owners.

It is quite extraordinary that the body representing legitimate, good nursing home owners expressed its total frustration on the radio over the fact that it could not get the Government to take action. It wants action. Has the Government, which preaches about the need to reduce regulation, decided its ideology has carried it so far it does not want to introduce any regulation in this area? I do not know. How does one follow the logic of a Government that states it can regulate guesthouses, restaurants and Chinese takeaways at 2 a.m. but cannot regulate the places in which old people have to live? It is not a question of money or complexity but of political priorities.

The Government says the legislation is complex. I guarantee that I and my Labour Party colleagues in this House will introduce a Bill before the House rises for the summer to deal with this issue if the Government cannot do so. I will offer it to the Government and it can deal with it. The problem is not very complex; it is simply a matter or rewriting some sections of existing legislation and specifying in some detail, or giving the Minister the authority to specify in some detail, those provisions that need to be specified. The only reason the Government will not do so is because it will not remove any legislation from its legislative programme, thus implying the elderly must wait.

I agree with Senator Feeney and others that the vast majority of nursing homes are of an excellent standard. I do not know this but believe it and make an act of faith by trusting in the common decency of most of the people who run such facilities. When I go into a restaurant I do not have to depend on my belief in the common decency of the people who run it because I know there is a food safety authority with clout and the capacity to close it down. This has the wonderful effect of concentrating people's minds. We agree such regulation should apply to restaurants and, as I stated, Chinese takeaways at 2 a.m., yet we cannot find a place in a crowded legislative schedule to achieve this for our old people, even though the organisation representing most of the nursing homes asked the Government to do so and although representative after representative has called repeatedly for an inspectorate since 1984. It is 18 months since the representative organisation asked for this measure.

This issue is not solely about the Leas Cross nursing home, horrific as the abuse that took place there may be, but about why the system could be as it is. How could we have created an inspection regime under which inspectors must phone institutions to state when they will be making their inspections? One can only conclude it is a deliberate ploy to give people a chance to put their affairs in order. This is not how inspections should be carried out. Imagine what would happen if an inspector phoned a restaurant to state he would be inspecting it the following Thursday. It would be spotless. This bears no consideration at all.

There is a fundamental requirement for legislation that gives the power to set standards, inspect institutions and close them down if necessary. It should make it perfectly clear that the State has an explicit power and right to close down institutions that are not up to standard, just as it can do in respect of a restaurant or guesthouse. Such legislation is urgent and should be backed up by the necessary resources to ensure that every nursing home can be inspected frequently and without notice at various hours of the day and night. Thus, we will really know what is happening therein. When such legislation is enacted, I will not have to make acts of faith in human nature and will know what I believe to be the case, namely, that the majority of nursing homes are run by good people who care. Until we enact it, we are not only letting down old people but also those who run good nursing homes around the country.